ABSTRACT
Replacing the Articles of Confederation with the Constitution did not change the American approach to dealing with Indian tribes living within the nation's borders. Indeed, American Indian policy echoed that of Britain before 1763, which had been similar to that of the other European colonizing powers. All had made use of the doctrine of discovery. Initially in the War of Independence both the British and the Americans had wanted all of the tribes to remain neutral on the assumption that neutrality would work to their advantage. By 1786 the US government had made it clear to the Iroquois in New York and various tribes in the Ohio country that their land titles existed at its sufferance. Aggravated colonists in the 1760s and early 1770s had attempted to pair political protest with economic pressure. Ambitious colonists were trying to expand the range of permissible growth, not overturn a system that was opposed to growth in any form.
